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Matthew Mitcham dives for goldPhoto: Tim Clayton

Out-and-out champion celebrates

Jessica Halloran | August 25, 2008

HE KISSED him briefly in the stands and gave him his Olympic
bouquet. Later, outside the glowing blue Water Cube, Matthew
Mitcham and his partner, Lachlan Fletcher, firmly embraced, both
shedding tears. Next it was his mother Vivien's turn to hold her
golden boy, and more tears fell.

A stunning final dive that was awarded the highest score in
Olympic history gave Mitcham the gold. She proudly said her son was
a man of "firsts".

"Coming out publicly, that was a first," said Vivien. "The
highest score awarded to an Olympic dive ever, another first. How
many more firsts can this child get? Can you find something else to
be first in? He's just done so well. He deserves it."

Just as he has shown flipping around at 10 metres high, Mitcham
has shown no fear about disclosing his sexuality. He was the first
Australian athlete to go to an Olympics openly gay.

the diver had taken to the top. Fletcher has been the one
constant over the past two years.

He was his rock when Mitcham retired in his late teenage years
suffering anxiety and depression. He watched him become a stunt
diver at the Sydney Royal Easter show, supported his fight back
into the sport and now to win Olympic gold.

"It's been so up and down," Fletcher said. "When I first met
him, he was pretty unhappy, he wasn't liking the diving in Brisbane
at all, he didn't want to do it, wasn't happy being there.

"It took a lot for him to retire and stop doing it because it
had been his life for so long. He wanted to try and be happy again.
He took time to do normal things that people do.

"Then after five or six months he started to really miss it
again and he had the opportunity to dive with Chava [Sobrino, his
coach]. He started that and loved it ever since, every second of
it, which is great to see him happy all the time."

Gay website Outsports.com said he was the only man among 10,500
Olympic athletes to publicly say he is gay. But his mother said
while he has always been proud of his sexuality, Mitcham was
initially concerned that coming out would affect him
financially.

"He was only hesitant because he was worried about that factor
of sponsorship," Vivien said. "It was a bit of a worry. But I think
everybody has caught up now."

Fletcher said that Mitcham, 20, was concerned that his sexuality
would overshadow his diving achievements. He has become a pin-up
boy gracing the covers of national gay magazines here and overseas.
Gossip blogger Perez Hilton featured a shirtless Mitcham
accompanied by the tagline: "Yum. Yum. Yum! Can we have a piece of
that????"

But the almost perfectly executed back two-and-a-half somersault
with one-and-a-half twists and a 3.8 degree of difficulty, earning
112.10 points, made sure people would be talking about his final
dive that gave him gold. The Chinese home crowd gasped as Mitcham
nailed the breathtaking dive.

"The biggest thing he was worried about was people paying more
attention to that than his actually diving," Fletcher said. "And I
suppose that kind of did happen a little bit. Hopefully, now it
won't be so much of an issue any more."

Mitcham was 30 points behind top Chinese favourite Zhou Luxin
before the last attempt. Fletcher said he felt "stupidly nervous"
as Mitcham went for his final dive.

Sobrino, who was instrumental in reviving Mitcham's career, was
gobsmacked by the final dive. "It was his best dive and that's why
we put it at the end," Sobrino said.

"The expectancy of that dive was around 106 to 108 points. But
not 112, never. He did it at the right time, at the right moment,
in the right pool with the right crowd, so I'm pretty happy and we
got the right medal."

It was the eighth and last medal in a sport that China dominates
and was expected

to sweep. Mitcham cried and bounced around the pool deck before
climbing up to the stands to embrace Fletcher.

"It's going to take a while to sink in," Mitcham said. "My
cheeks hurt from smiling. My face hurts from the chlorine. My legs
are sore from jumping up and down. I'm in pain and I'm tired. But
I'm so happy."